Keith Brown DTN Contributing Cotton Analyst    

The cotton market was materially lower Thursday amid breaking outside markets. New Chinese inflation data was taken as negative, which in turn rallied the U.S. dollar, breaking everything else. That is, from corn to crude to copper, and, of course, cotton, were all down. In fact, the cotton market sloughed off decent export sales data to spilllover.    

Thursday, USDA will issue its May WASDE. The Washington tabulators will offer an initial glimpse into the 2023-24 season's production. Traders expect to see an average production number of 15.78 million bales versus the 14.68 million bales of last year. Ending stocks are anticipated to be slightly elevated, while world stocks may be a tad lower.    

From USDA, we note that cumulative sales for the 2022-23 season have reached 107% of the government's seasonal goal versus the five-year average of 105% complete. Although, that information sounds friendly, the U.S. is actually selling less cotton abroad.    

The Southwest, especially Texas is experiencing copious amounts of rain. In fact, the one- to five-day forecast is allowing for several inches of precipitation. The six- to 10-day and eight- to 14-day forecasts continue to show above-normal chances of rain.    

Thursday, the Climate Prediction Center will update its weekly U.S. Drought Monitor. It will be noteworthy to see if the weekly U.S. Drought Monitor, updated each Thursday, will provide some relief for West Texas from the recent rains.    

Thursday, July settled at 79.62 cents, down 1.14 cents and December ended at 79.60 cents, 1.16 cents lower. Thursday's estimated volume was 30,735 contracts.    

Keith Brown can be reached at commodityconsults@gmail.com 

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